Biden to sign executive order to protect travel for abortion.
WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden on Wednesday will sign an executive order aimed in part at making it easier for women seeking abortions to travel between states to obtain access to the procedure.
The order will also call on health care providers to comply with federal nondiscrimination laws and streamline the collection of key data and information on maternal health at the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The details were described by senior administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the executive order ahead of a formal announcement.
The new order nonetheless falls short of what many Democratic lawmakers and abortion advocacy groups have demanded of the Biden administration since the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the landmark 1973 ruling Roe vs. Wade. One chief ask has been for Biden to declare a public health emergency on abortion, which White House officials have said would do little to free up federal resources or activate new legal authorities.